Jonathan Crane
Dr. Jonathan Crane was a corrupt psycho-pharmacologist working as chief administrator of Arkham Asylum, who developed a fear-inducing toxin from a blue flower that grew in the League of Shadows' hideout and, in addition to his employment under Ra's al Ghul, took up the persona of the Scarecrow, a gas-proof burlap-masked external tormentor portraying himself as a "master of fear", who used his patients as the guinea pigs for his experiments on the toxin while working with Ra's to smuggle its drug ingredients into Gotham using Carmine Falcone. Originally serving as the secondary antagonist of Batman Begins, '' Biography ''Batman Begins In League with Ra's al Ghul Dr. Jonathan Crane was a corrupt, sadistic psychiatrist specializing in psycho-pharmacology at Arkham Asylum. Crane was secretly allied with Ra's al Ghul and Carmine Falcone, smuggling the former's hallucinogenic drugs into Gotham to create fear gas to use upon his patients in cruel experiments. Crane testified in court that Victor Zsasz, one of Falcone's assassins, was legally insane and should be moved to Arkham for rehabilitation. This enraged Assistant District Attorney Rachel Dawes, who later accused him of being corrupt. Crane then met with Falcone to discuss having her murdered. When Falcone later attempted to blackmail Crane, Crane donned his Scarecrow mask and doused Falcone with his Fear Toxin, which drove the mob boss insane and left him repeatedly uttering "Scarecrow". Crane attributed this to Falcone identifying the image with a Jungian archetype. In Crane's first encounter with Batman, he sprayed Batman with his fear toxin and set him on fire, though Batman narrowly escaped with his life and mind intact. With the help of Lucius Fox, Batman acquired an antidote to the toxin. Shortly thereafter, Batman had a second confrontation with Crane, this time at Arkham, where he rescued Rachel Dawes after Crane has sprayed her with his toxin. Batman overpowered Crane's henchmen and sprayed the doctor with a dose of his own medicine, destroying what was left of his sanity and divulging his real superior: Ra's al Ghul. Crane was subsequently arrested by Jim Gordon, but later escaped in the mass release of Arkham inmates prompted by Ra's al Ghul as part of his plot to destroy Gotham. As Ra's al Ghul unleashed Crane's fear gas on Gotham's slums, Crane, by then calling himself Scarecrow, pursued Rachel and a boy through an alley on a horse, dragging a dead mounted police officer from its stirrups. To the boy, who was affected with the gas, Scarecrow appeared as a fiery eyed, deep-voiced monster riding a fire-breathing horse. After stating "There is nothing to fear, but fear itself - and I'm happy to help," Rachel eluded Scarecrow by shocking him in the face with a taser. Scarecrow aimlessly rode off into the night, screaming in pain. Sergeant James Gordon informed Batman that Scarecrow was still at large. When Bruce asked Ra's al Ghul if Crane was a member of the League of Shadows, he said, "Of course not. He thought the plan was to hold the city to ransom," Indicating that he used Crane and, if Crane wasn't in Arkham, would've left him in fear-infected Gotham ''The Dark Knight'' The Chechen's gang and Scarecrow's thugs meet in an empty parking lot to discuss the negative effect of Scarecrow's drug on the Chechen's customers. The meeting is interrupted by the Batmen (impostors of the Dark Knight that wear armor and wield firearms). Scarecrow easily holds his own against the impostor Batmen, until the real Batman arrives. Scrambling into his van, Scarecrow makes a getaway whilst Batman deals with the impostors and the gangsters. However, Scarecrow's plans go awry when Batman crashes into his vehicle mid-transit. Batman ties up a strangely happy Scarecrow, possibly due to the fact that he felt fear when Batman arrived, and leaves him for the police with the Batmen. ''The Dark Knight Rises'' '' When Bane frees the prisoners from Blackgate Prison, Scarecrow is one of the thousands of prisoners freed. Once liberated, Scarecrow presides over a "kangaroo court" trial wherein the rich aristocracy of Gotham are persecuted and given a choice between death and exile. He forced Phillip Stryver to go to exile, where he would have to walk across the ice-frozen river that connected Gotham to the other shore, away from the city. Stryver, along with presumably everybody else who tried the exile option, fell under the ice and froze to death. In addition, Bane also granted him full control of the courts to the extent that even Bane himself would not affect Scarecrow's ruling decision in the courts. Commissioner Gordon chose death, but Scarecrow made him have death by exile. He was saved by Batman while he began to walk, however. Scarecrow was presumably apprehended by the GCPD after Bane and Talia al Ghul were killed. Personality Crane was intelligent, pitiless, calm, malevolent, cunning, deceitful and arrogant. He was also sadistic and cruel, the perfect interpretation of a mad scientist. He showed signs of chronic mental disorder, shown by his interest in fear and the fact that he believes himself impregnable to emotion. Also, he is cunning, in that he manipulates Bane's Exile-or-Death policy when it came to punishing the wealthy families of Gotham, able ot deceitfully transfer it to Death-by-Exile. Relationships *Scarecrow - His Secret identity. *Ra's al Ghul - Employer. *Bane - Ally and Boss. *Batman - Enemy. *Rachel Dawes - Enemy. *Carmine Falcone - Enemy. Weapons and Equipment Scarecrow uses a deadly kind of Fear Toxin. The toxin is a powerful psychotropic hallucinogenic, causing disturbing images of fear in its victim's minds. When still a doctor, Crane used the toxin to experiment on his patients (nicknamed Crazies), and was brought into the League Of Shadows for use of his toxin against the whole of Gotham. The gas, in large doses, was mentally dangerous and capable of breaking one's mind. Only Lucius Fox was capable of making a cure for Crane's poison. In The Dark Knight, Scarecrow has managed to create a weapon from the gas, as seen when he uses a gas dispenser hidden in his sleeve. Despite the toxin's frightening effectiveness, Crane is quite defenseless once the gas is bypassed, as evident when Batman subdues him with little trouble. In order to not get intoxicated by his own weapon, Crane developed a poorly stitched burlap sack mask, which had a gas mask built into it. The mask also provided a catalyst of sorts to what the victims of the gas saw, as seen in cases such as Rachel Dawes and Carmine Falcone. Trivia *Scarecrow is the only antagonist to appear in all three Nolan Batman films, and one of only five characters to appear in all three films (the other four being Bruce Wayne, Commissioner Gordon, Alfred Pennyworth and Lucius Fox). External links * Category:Characters Category:Villains Category:Batman Begins Characters Category:The Dark Knight Characters Category:The Dark Knight Rises Characters Category:Males